


We’ll Survive Together, Promise

by she_who_the_river_could_not_hold



Series: Zombie Things [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Body Horror, F/M, Swearing, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-03-08 08:03:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 19,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13453956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/she_who_the_river_could_not_hold/pseuds/she_who_the_river_could_not_hold
Summary: One nightmare later and suddenly El Hopper’s life is ripped apart – a stream of infected zombies have taken over Hawkins and she finds herself on a race to save her loved ones. While she’s been separated by family and friends, she thankfully has her boyfriend Mike Wheeler with her as they take on this new reality. But that also involves acknowledging that there might be something more sinister, and more personal, at the root of this zombie apocalypse. And El isn’t sure she’s ready to tackle that threat quite yet.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> And we’re back with the continuation of my zombie/Stranger Things AU! This portion of the story is told through Mike and Eleven, but I highly recommend reading the Lucas x Max one that started it all! This one serves both as a bit of a prequel before they catch up with the others where it’ll finish in real time with all of them. I will also be updating the character list as it goes on. Happy reading!

Pema Chödrön, renowned American Tibetan Buddhist, once said:  

> _“Meditation is a process of lightening up, of trusting the basic goodness of what we have and who we are, and of realizing that any wisdom that exists, exists in what we already have.”_

 

While El Hopper fully agreed on the teaching, she was still trying to figure out how much she could apply that wisdom to when you were locked in a room avoiding a mob of angry zombies.

 

She was currently crammed into a tiny bathroom, her back flush against the porcelain wall of the tub and her eyes shut tightly. Her palms lay open on her knees, legs crossed in a seated position. It was taking every ounce of control she had to not lose her concentration. There was another round of banging on the door and rather unintelligible groaning accompanied it. 

 

“El, any moment now would be fantastic,” Mike Wheeler grunted as he pushed back on the door with all of his strength.

 

Pointedly ignoring her boyfriend and his current struggles, El focused on relaxing the tension in her face. It was taking longer than normal but she could slowly feel the energy within her collecting together. Her breathing began to steady out in comparison to the ragged breath she had started with when they had first escaped into the bathroom. There was a fluttering in her chest and it was like she could feel that source deep inside her growing stronger. 

 

A deep breath in.

 

A deep breath out.

 

“Now,” she whispers.

 

Mike jumps back from the door, pressing himself up against the wall as he scrambled to get out of the way. The door swings open and the three infected stumble in, having lost their balance with the sudden lack of force opposing them. 

 

El opens her eyes, just slightly tilting her gaze as she stares them down.

 

The one closest to her, a larger hulking figure with flesh practically falling off one of its arms, began to lumber towards her. It’s drooling long chains of saliva tinged with blood and the other two stumble to keep up.El lets them get about halfway across the tiled floor before thrusting her head up in a sharp movement.

 

The feeling of her power courses through her in a flash of intensity and the force shoves all three of the zombies backwards, slamming against the back wall of the hallway. One body practically disintegrates upon contact and crumbles to the floor, too far gone in its decay to withstand the hit. Inky blood splatters across the faded yellow floral wallpaper from the other two. Some limbs are torn apart and their chests, where her energy had been most focused, are caved in. Any form of a beating heart they might have still had is crushed and the bodies lay lifelessly on the aging carpet.

 

Mike slides down the wall until he’s sitting, legs are sprawled out in front of him.

 

“I never get tired of that,” he says, giving El a wide, if a bit tired, grin.

 

El returns the smile and releases her breath in a slow and steady rhythm. She reflexively wipes at her nose, even though there is no blood to be found. 

 

They’re quite the scene, two teenagers in a bathroom built for one, with a pile of undead bodies in the hall just outside of them. 

 

El’s jeans are splattered in blood and dirt, her once white converse now a dusty brown. Mike’s t-shirt, a vintage Star Wars one he had found at a thrift store with her over a year ago now, has its own pattern of blood and other types of bodily fluid stains on it, as well as slashes in the fabric near his shoulder. The humidity has brought out the curls in his hair, the dark strands coiling up from the heat and from the sheer will-power they had developed when he had turned fourteen. El’s hair still exceeds Mike’s in curliness, though she has hers pulled back in a tiny ponytail at the back of her neck with just a few curls popping free around her face. 

 

All in all, it’s not their best look.

 

But as they reach out for each others’ hands and smile at each other, thankful to still be alive, none of it matters.

 

* * *

 

**A Week and a Half Ago**

 

El shot up into a sitting position from the bed with a choked out cry.

 

Not quite waking up from the noise, Mike mumbles something and rotates in his sleep, wrapping his arm around her waist in the process. Her chest heaving, she looked down at his sleeping form and tried to recollect the fragments of her dream before they disappeared. His hot breath puffed his up hair slightly and his nose twitched.

 

There were hints of the dream still lingering on the edges of her brain.

 

The lab. 

 

The screams. 

 

A needle being injected into an arm that was rattling its cage. 

 

More a nightmare than a dream. But something about this one tonight felt different. It didn’t just feel like memories manifesting in her mind, they felt recent. 

 

Newer.

 

Slipping out of Mike’s grasp (causing him to immediately roll partially into her spot and snuggle up to her pillow), El made her way from his room down to the hall bathroom. It had to be early in the morning, maybe 3 AM, and the house was completely silent save for the occasional creak from the wind outside. 

 

El could find the bathroom with her eyes practically shut at this point, muscle memory carrying her to it as even the moonlight didn’t make its way onto the carpet. 

 

With Mike’s parents getting a divorce a couple years ago, his mom had gradually let up on her tight rules on the household and now El split her nights at the cabin and in Mike’s arms at his home. Especially now with summer vacation in full swing, she found herself frequenting his place even more.

 

Plus her dad was usually at the Byers house and their air conditioning was very hit or miss at the cabin, so they had developed an unspoken agreement about it all.

 

Closing the door as quietly as she could, El ran the water from the sink’s faucet and splashed some on her face. The drops were cold, almost stinging, and she stared down into the sink. 

 

She hadn’t done it in so long that she almost wasn’t sure if she could do it anymore. But something from her dreams tonight was begging for more investigation, nagging at the back of her mind. In two quick motions, El snaps the lock shut and grabs one of the hand towels hanging beside her. Taking a deep breath, she turns the water back on and ties the towel around her eyes. Her hand shaking somewhat, she turns off the light.

 

She’s immediately surrounded by darkness, her other senses elevated as the water coming from the faucet sounds like a roar of rushing water and her hands tremble under the suddenly freezing cold temperature.

 

Then silence.

 

El opens her eyes and she’s back. She’s in the Void.

 

Taking a tentative step forward, she feels the hairs on her arm stand up at the familiar feeling of her feet trudging through the Void’s wet floor. A floor made of water with no temperature and no feeling at all.

 

There’s a figure pacing up ahead, a singular light framing it in her sight. 

 

Head cocked to the side, she makes her way towards it. It slowly forms into the shape of a man, angrily stomping his way back and forth while waving his hands. Eventually she’s close enough to see him clearly and then she can hear him, his words going in and out.

 

“…I don’t know how the fuck I was supposed to know…”

 

He spins on his heel away from her.

 

“…the initial test subjects didn’t react like this. They simply died after an hour of exposure…”

 

He turns about face, walking straight towards El, who was frozen in place as she watched him.

 

“…craving brains! Of all things! We NEED more test subjects, this isn’t a question…”

 

El slowly walks around him, regaining her courage again. He’s wearing a lab coat and she recognizes the styling of it enough to know he’s from the Hawkins Lab. He keeps angrily pushing his reading glasses up his nose, sweat beading on his forehead.

 

“…you hear me? More test subjects. These dogs aren’t enough and they’re mutating too, I need humans…”

 

“I understand.”

 

The new voice is like ice going down El’s spine.

 

It’s like she’s locked into place and she can’t even bring herself to blink. She’s sucked in her breath, her chest beginning to hurt. But breathing out means relaxing. And she can’t relax, not while she can feel his presence just behind her.

 

When she turns, it’s agonizingly slow but somehow not slow enough. Because when she completes the half circle, there he is looming above her, just a breath away,. His white hair is glowing in what must be the singular light in whatever room they are in. His suit is as immaculate as ever, and the impassive look on his face is as unreadable as she remembers.

 

_Papa_.

 

She knows he’s talking to the man behind her.

 

She knows that. But she can still feel his stare burning into her.

 

El feels overwhelmed by the sensation of freezing and being scorched at the same time, the two consuming her body. Her mind is spinning out of control just even seeing him and all thought flies out.  


“I’ll write a letter to the President today. We don’t have any time to waste. I’ll get you your test subjects, we can’t have this getting out of control,” Papa says curtly, though his low raspy voice still sends shivers racing down El’s body.

 

He walks forward and El finds her feet unable to move. He passes through her and the scene dissolves around her, the figures gone.

 

Collapsing to her knees, El lets out a sob and yanks the towel away from her eyes. 

 

It’s where Mike finds her a while later when he comes stumbling into the bathroom having used the spare key to the bathroom stashed on top of the doorframe, his eyes wide with panic. 

 

“El, oh my god what’s happened?” His voice is thick with sleep and worry as he drops to her level and embraces her. “You weren’t in bed and I didn’t see any lights on, I was so worried.”

 

When she pulls her face back, his hand reaches out to wipe underneath her nose, his thumb coming away with only a spot of blood. It was the first nose bleed she had caused from her powers in a while.

 

She’d accidentally stumbled upon meditation just over a year ago when a small shop had opened up in Hawkins. It had been startling, the small town unsure what to do with the holistic shop. However when Nancy had come home for Christmas that year from college, she had been thrilled to try out the yoga classes there and promptly dragged El and Mrs. Wheeler. While the yoga practice had been fairly fun (she only got stuck in a couple poses), the sign for guided meditation practice had been what had really caught El’s attention.

 

The yoga instructor, a tall, willowy woman named Kimberly, had walked up and gently asked El about her interest. El had stumbled over her answer, trying to explain the need to feel centered without revealing that she was curious if it could help her with her still sporadic telekinetic powers.

 

Everyone (especially her dad) had noticed the difference in her temper after she began to go to the sessions regularly, but what she didn’t show people right away was the dramatic improvement in her powers and control. 

 

She first would sit by herself and meditate for upwards to thirty minutes before practicing lifting small objects and then eventually working her way to larger ones, even lifting a shocked Mike up into the air one time while he was seated on the couch in the cabin. Soon the nosebleeds stopped and she found herself less winded, reenergizing her powers faster each time.

 

_She had no idea how important that was going to be soon._

 

But at this moment all she can see is the blood on Mike’s fingers and she can feel that her body had been pushing herself harder. 

 

“Something is wrong,” she replies with a deep sniff, cradling Mike’s hand in her lap.

 

Mike furrows his brow, scooting himself closer.

 

“What do you mean wrong?”

 

“The lab – they’re doing something again. And it’s something really bad.”

 

* * *

 

**A Week Ago**

 

“So why aren’t we breaking into the high school?” Mike’s voice was laced with skepticism.

 

Dustin dangled the keys in front of Mike’s face before returning to working on the door.

 

“ _Becaaussee,”_ he said, dragging out his words and in his usual frustrated voice he reserved for when people asked stupid questions. “Mr. Clarke gave me an extra set of keys in case any of the meetings go late and I need to lock up. It’s a perk of being a volunteer TA who also helps with the after school AV Club. You know, the thing we spent three years a part of?”

 

Mike rolls his eyes but doesn’t respond. He wasn’t in the mood to get anything going tonight. El shivered despite the warm summer night, her arm brushing up against his. He gripped her hand tighter, giving her what he hoped was a reassuring smile.

 

“Voila!” Dustin exclaimed with a flourish as he sipped back, swinging the large metal front door open.

 

“We’re in.”

 

The five teens slowly made their way through the halls, filled only with the shuffling of their shoes and Dustin’s casual humming.

 

Will gives El a small nudge and a small smile, which she returns with own. 

 

In a rhythm, they begin to recreate the night they had done so many years ago. Lucas and Dustin pull the pool into the gym while Mike runs off to get the hose.

 

Just the two of them left, El and Will sit together on the bleachers.

 

“Does it feel like last time?” His voice is soft, echoing just slightly in the large gym.

 

El nods before doing a jerky shake of her head after a beat.

 

“Sort of. This is almost harder because I don’t even know what I’m looking for, but last time was hard because, well…” she trails off as she looks at Will.

 

He nods understandably, tapping his toes together. They don’t have to say anything else. 

 

The timing of Hopper rescuing El had coincided with Will’s kidnapping, a bizarre sort of switch in a disturbing way. When El’s powers had come to light, the boys had begged her to help locate their best friend. It had been a draining and harrowing night, finishing with the group of middle schoolers huddled together while Hopper lead a team to bust apart the house where El had traced Will to. They still rarely talked about it, preferring to leave it in the past. But ever since then, El and Will had maintained a special connection.

 

Lucas eventually joined them, sitting on El’s other side.

 

“You know you can trust us right El? What are we looking for?” His voice is sincere and she gives him a grateful smile and a quick squeeze of his knee.

 

“I know, I promise I do. I’m not even sure I completely know what I’m looking for. I’m just hoping this will give me some answers.”

 

Time ticks on and soon they’re set up. The boys help surround the small pool and with one hand in Mike’s and another in Will’s, El steps one foot into the water. She’s about to place her other foot into the pool of water when the metal handle on the gym door starts to rattle violently.

 

Dustin nearly slips into the pool himself while Will’s hands begin to tremble. Lucas sucks in a breath and Mike immediately moves to nearly cover El. It’s nearly midnight and they had naturally assumed that they would be the only ones at the school.

 

It didn’t appear that was the case.

 

They collectively hold their breath as the wait to see what happens. The door calms down for a minute and the empty room falls quiet again. It’s broken though by even more aggressive shaking at the door until it slams open against the wall.

 

We often have our own personal images of what the word “zombie” means to each of us. The idea of the undead can vastly change from culture to culture, and story to story. For our small band of teenagers in Hawkins Middle School, it’s almost not even immediately obvious that they’re zombies.

 

But then they’re close enough to tell. And it’s not great. 

 

There has to be five of them and they’re all in relatively different states of decay. Their skin is loose and tinged with a grayish green color. On the one closest to them, there’s a scattering of bruises and deep purple veins criss-crossed across the body. One of them, near the back, is a young boy even. All of them have almost entirely bloodshot eyes, dark streaks coursing through the whites of them, making their eyes almost hidden in the fluorescent lights of the gym.

 

There’s a garbled sentence coming from one of them but as a whole the party has decided it is absolutely unnecessary to know what it’s saying.

 

They’re clearly going to try to kill them.

 

Or eat them.

 

Immediately jumping into action, Mike yanks El from the pool.

 

“Let’s move, let’s move!” He shouts to everyone as they try to fight the panicked feeling settling in them.

 

None of them really need telling twice and immediately begin to run towards the exit. The zombies had come from the main hallway and while they’re crossing at the gym floor at an uncomfortably quick speed, there’s an emergency door towards the back that the teens aim for as they sprint.

 

El hangs back just a bit, causing Mike to stumble some.

 

“Go!” She urges, pushing him ahead a bit. “Catch up with the others!”  


“I’m not losing you!”

 

“Mike – go! I promise I’ll catch up!”

 

Mike lets out a growl through his clenched teeth but turns on his heel to catch up with the other boys who have stopped just shy of the door. Dustin is waving his hand, calling out to them. Lucas is holding the door open, the hot summer night’s air seeping into the gym while Will bounces on the ball of his feet.

 

Confident that Mike is actually going to reach the guys, El turns around and plants her feet, facing the group of zombies. Lifting her hands up, she lets a rush of anger flow through her.

 

Images from her nightmare blend together with her own memories of being poked and prodded. 

 

Her deep-rooted fear that somehow this was all connected.

 

The idea that after all she had lived through she might die from some fucking _zombies._

 

With a guttural scream, she forces her power out from her hands and sends the zombies flying backwards. It’s not as strong as she would have liked it to be, she’s in a bit of a rush after all, but it buys them the time they need and she’s able to dart back to her friends. 

 

Hands reach out for her and help pull her outside, Dustin at the ready to lock the door behind them. Will has already helped pull all of their bikes over and they all quickly load onto them. It’s time to get the hell out of there.

 

Peddling as quickly as possible, Mike leads the group down the streets from the school back towards town and to get to their homes. El is gripping him as tightly as she can, her mind still reeling from the events that had just happened. A trickle of blood still drips down from her nose but she’s too petrified to reach up and try to stop it.

 

As they grew closer to the middle of the city, they began to pass an increasingly large amount of cars parked along side the road. Soon groups of people are popping up, all rushing in the same direction. Some are towing bags behind them, suitcases nearly flipping on their wheels as the person rushes on.

 

They exchange looks of utter confusion at each other before suddenly everything empties out into a more open area. Jumping off of their bikes, they’re suddenly surrounded by chaos.

 

There are massive flood lamps set up in the middle of their small downtown area. Giant military tanks and trucks line the streets and it feels like almost everyone in town is there.

 

The party looks at each other in horror as they process everything around them. 

 

A car suddenly drives up them, the wheels squealing as it’s slammed to a stop. The window rolls down and a familiar face pokes his head out.

 

“Dustin! Get your ass in the car!” Steve Harrington calls out urgently.

 

There’s a faint _“language!”_ gasped from Dustin’s mom who is sitting in the front seat, clutching her cat to her chest. Dustin gapes at the two before looking at the others.

 

“I guess this is my ride,” he mutters before darting to the back door of the car.

 

“I’ll see you guys on the other side?” His voice has his usual confidence but the nerves are still able to picked up on. With a chorus of agreement and farewells, the party watches him as the car departs in a flurry. 

 

It’s the tipping point and suddenly things begin to move in hyper speed. 

 

Lucas slaps his forehead before turning to the party with a loud _fuck_ spat out under his breath.

 

“My family – they’re in Chicago visiting my aunt. I need to get there, see if I can catch up with them. We have no clue how wide spread this shit is,” he says, wildly looking around before spotting a soldier who appears to answering people’s questions.

 

His gives a big hug to Will and slaps him on the back twice before hugging Mike and El, then darting off towards the soldier.

 

Will gives a desperate look to his friends, chewing on his lip nervously. 

 

“I hate leaving you guys too but I gotta find my mom in all of this chaos, I’m so sorry,” he says almost tearfully, embracing the two before running over to where he had left his bike.

 

El and Mike latch onto each other before fighting their way through all of the people. As they get further in, they could hear someone yelling out directions for people to follow. It only took a split second of hearing the booming voice over the crowd for El to know exactly who was helping lead directing the panicked crowds.

 

“Dad!”  


Jim Hopper’s head jerked around at the sound of El’s voice before eventually finding her small form as she burst through the crowd, Mike close at her heels with his hands latched to her shoulders so they didn’t get separated by the sea of jostling people.

 

Nodding to one his deputies who was helping him, he quickly made his way over to meet them.

 

“El, where the hell have you been?” He pulled her into a tight embrace, softening his blunt question.

 

“What’s going on?” Mike asked.

 

Hopper sighed, gesturing towards the armored trucks and the scattered military officers. 

 

“It’s an evacuation. Those attacks over in Ohio just started spreading way too fast and it’s reached Hawkins. It’s a god damn zombie apocalypse kids. We’re trying to get as many people out and they’ve been sending out the Army to help get everyone out,” he explained, his typical gruffness exchanged for a faster, more nervous tone.

 

Mike and El look at each other and Hopper is once again reminded about the extreme connection the two have.

 

Just as El opens her mouth to say something, screams erupt around them and everyone frantically looks around.

 

Coming down the street are seven zombies, some from the gym it looks like, charging towards the crowd. One lets out a roar, spittle and blood flying from its mouth. 

 

Shots ring out.

 

A man in an Army uniform is standing atop one of the trucks and rapid fires his gun, an explosion of bullets aimed at the incoming infected. The crowd drops to the ground, El’s hands tightly holding onto Mike’s and her eyes squeezed shut. The echo from the bullets rattles in her head and she grits her teeth until they stop.

 

Everyone is crouched, wordlessly looking at the two bodies in the street. 

 

The threat is apparently only growing.

 

“Everybody, please resume the evacuation process. We are trying to get everyone out of here as quickly and as safely as possible,” the General standing nearby shouts, creating a chain reaction of everyone getting back into the hustle to leave the town.

 

El lunges for her dad, grasping his hand.

 

“I have to help Terry. My mom… she needs me.”

 

Hopper stares down at her and his heart swells with sadness and warmth towards his adoptive daughter. Since rescuing her from the lab he had worried about losing her but he knew that she was right. Terry was living so far off the grid people wouldn’t know to rescue her.

 

“Here,” he says, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his keys, “Take the truck.”

 

His iconic sheriff’s truck is parked just past the evacuation loading scene and El takes the keys hesitantly from him. 

 

“Where you will you go?”

 

“I need to stay and help evacuate Hawkins, and if you’re not here then it’s probably best for me to see how I can help in other towns. Get these people to safety.”

 

A quiet falls between the two as they look at each other before collapsing into another hug. This one is goodbye now. Puling apart, El furiously wipes at her tears and Hopper lets out a large sniff as he coughs to hide his emotions. 

 

“Go, get out of here,” he commands the two.

 

Mike steps in and the two hug tightly as well. They had gotten off to a weird start when they had first met, but had overtime reached a common bond with El and Hopper had effectively filled in while Mike dealt with the absence of his own father (especially during the divorce). This one, while not as outwardly emotional, is still a difficult goodbye.

 

“Take good care of her,” Hopper says in a low voice.

 

Mike nods, stuffily inhaling through his nose.

 

“I promise.”

 

And with that, the two teens take off away from the pulsating crowd to get to the truck.

 

Pulling up to the Wheeler house, El quickly throws the car into park and the two make their way inside. It was eerily silent compared to normal and it took only a quick scan of the upstairs to tell them that his family had been evacuated already.

 

Mike marched steadily to his room, his jaw clenched. 

 

It was odd trying to figure out how to prepare for a zombie apocalypse; no matter how many movies you’ve seen it definitely feels weirder in real life. 

 

El shadows him quietly, taking in the house around her. This could very well be the last time they’re in here and she feels the feelings begin to hit her hard. But now isn’t the time to dwell on all of this.

 

When she finally looked back at Mike, she saw him standing in front of his bed with a large, wry grin on his face. In his hands is his life-size replica of Aragorn’s sword, Anduril.

 

El can’t help the giggles that spill out of her. Maybe it’s the exhaustion and the situation, but she suddenly can’t stop laughing. They’re contagious and soon Mike is laughing alongside her, shaking his head as he looks down at the sword.

 

“What else am I going to use as a weapon El??” he manages to ask in between his bouts of laughter.

 

She concedes that it’s a fair point and it would be good if they didn’t have to entirely rely on her powers to get them through this.

 

Sorting through his room a bit more, Mike gathers together a backpack and determines that he’s finished here. They do, of course, have to take a quick detour when El decides that she’s actually insanely hungry and there’s no reason to fight zombies on an empty stomach. Mike sighs and ruffles her hair, because somehow _El is always hungry_ , but he admits it’s a good idea.

 

After El has raided the fridge, Mike obediently holding open his backpack for her to stuff food into it, they quickly turned on their heel to hurry back out to the car and get on the road. 

 

A sound startles them however and they whirl around, Mike swinging the sword up hesitantly in defense. It’s not the zombie invasion they were expecting though.

 

“Dad! Jesus what are you doing here?”

 

Mike sort of half stumbles backwards out of shock, El’s hands tightly around his forearm, keeping him up, as the two of them stare at the hunched man gripping the kitchen counter. He must have come out from the living room, entering into the kitchen from the other side than where they had come in. Mr. Wheeler’s hand was glued to his side, blood seeping through his fingers. Her eyes zeroing in on it, El tugged at Mike to get his attention.

 

“He’s hurt,” she whispered.

 

Mike’s eyes followed her gaze, his jaw going slack at the sight. 

 

“Are – are you okay?” He struggled to ask.

 

Ted Wheeler let out what had maybe been an attempt at a chuckle, but ended up only being a strangled gurgle.

 

“Your mother…” his voice was strained. “I couldn’t let her down any more than I already have.”

 

A silence followed his statement, save for a small hiss of pain as he continued.

 

“When I heard about the evacuations, I had to come out. The apartment I’ve been at it is close enough. I got her and Holly out but…” His voice trails off as he removes his hand from his side.Mike and El can’t help but recoil. The gash is deep and brutal, the flesh around it ripped off. It undeniably looks like an attempted bite mark.

 

Ted sighs deeply and lets out a rattling cough.

 

“Just don’t go look in the basement,” is all he says in reference to where no doubt the slain zombie still lies.

 

The two teens glance at each other and nod. They can’t waste any time.

 

“Dad, we’re leaving Hawkins. We have to go help El’s mom. She needs to get evacuated.” Mike’s voice is neutral, as he leaves the sentence hanging with the unspoken question, _do you want to come with us?_

 

His father grimaces in response, not looking at them and instead taking in the kitchen around them. Ghosts of the past flash by him. 

 

Nancy prancing in after her first dance lesson.

 

Mike charging in waving the trophy from the first science fair he won with his friends.

 

Holly taking her first steps.

 

When he finally returns Mike and El’s gaze, his eyes are shining with unshed tears. But there’s something else there. 

 

A hunger.

 

A stream of curse words pour through Mike’s mind and El swallows nervously. There’s nothing good that can come out of this. Even with the death hanging over Ted Wheeler, it’s obvious that he’s a doomed man for other reasons too.

 

“I think it’s best that you two leave,” he croaks, unable to help his eyes drifting to the top of the two teens’ heads. His tongue snakes out on its own and he subconsciously drags it across his bottom lip.

 

Nauseated, Mike grabs El and spins her around.

 

“We have to go.”

 

The two barely have shut the front door behind them when a loud moan reaches their ears from the inside. The small rectangular window by the door gives them a look in as Ted drops to his knees, groaning and twisting in pain. 

 

Mike lets out a sob and buries his face in El’s hair. His hot tears hit her scalp and she can’t help the tears leaking from her eyes as well. She can’t stand seeing Mike in this pain, even if he had never been close to his father she knows this is too hard to watch. 

 

Knowing what she has to do, she places her hand gently on the glass in line with Mr. Wheeler’s arched body.

 

A deep breath in.

 

A deep breath out.

 

She imagines the inner workings of Ted Wheeler’s body, mimicking the anatomy books that she had scoured the summer before joining the boys at school. The way his veins twist through his body and trace back to their life source. A beating heart, pulsing frantically and no doubt fighting against the infection that’s currently spreading to it. 

 

The glass is fogging up underneath her finger tips and sweat drips down her nose.

 

Slowly, she squeezes her fingers closer together, the image of his heart still burned in her mind as she visualizes it, as if she’s holding it. Her fingers inch closer together and she imagines the blood slowing down and the heart relaxing.

 

Until it’s completely stopped.

 

She let’s out her breath in a large gasp and opens her eyes. Ted Wheeler, divorced husband of Karen Wheeler and the father to her true love and his two sisters, lays on the tiled floor. His eyes have shut as if he’s asleep, only the blood slowly pooling out from his side an indication of the pain he had been going through. He was released from a future of being undead or dying an even more painful death than he already was.

 

Turning and embracing Mike, the two stayed on the porch for a few minutes. Mike was murmuring a stream of endless thank you’s, his voice somewhat shaking. El could only nod and kiss his temple as he bent his head down onto her shoulder, her arms wrapped around his. She would do anything for him; she would (and now had) killed for him.

 

They would survive this together.

 

* * *

 

**Twenty Minutes Ago**

 

El zipped up her duffle bag before puling her hair back in a small ponytail. Even though her hair was still growing out, the thick curls still added almost too much heat to her neck in this oppressive summer temperature.

 

The air conditioning had clicked off the other day and they knew that was their sign to head out. 

 

Where to?

 

They weren’t sure yet but it wasn’t logical to stay out here anymore. And with El getting the safe arrival call from her mother’s sister Becky that the two women had successfully reached a safe zone somewhere in New Jersey, she felt more content at the idea of leaving. Things had been relatively peaceful. She and Mike had avoided turning on the small TV to see any updates. They figured they’d know soon enough once they headed out what the state of the country was in.

 

There was still that feeling in the back of her mind, nudging her that she should look further into that early feeling about the lab. To follow through on looking into if they could have somehow been a part of all of this. If her dream had been a sign.

 

But it had been so nice to be utterly _selfish_ , to hide away with Mike and to avoid all of this.

 

Hadn’t losing her entire childhood been enough for the world? She didn’t want anything to do with them again and she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

 

She was making her way out towards the living room when the front door slammed shut, Mike running in. His hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath, he was just able to get out what he was trying to say.

 

“Infected – so close –” _dry heave_ “Coming this way.”

 

As if to answer him, there’s a not-so-distant rumble of moaning from outside.

 

Fuck.

 

El’s heart goes into overdrive and they two immediately begin to brace the front door shut with any large furniture they can move. She tries to help out some with her powers, but the arrival of these unwanted guests makes her wary of overusing her power. She’ll need all of the possible stamina she can get. 

 

They’ve got a small bookcase, a chest of drawers, and two kitchen chairs stacked up against the door when the first thud against it reverberates through the house. 

 

“Shit,” Mike mutters under his breath, looking over at El.

 

“So do we wanna take them head on?”

 

El bites her lip and looks over at him before nervously looking back at the door.

 

“We should give ourselves space, make them come to us,” she decides.

 

There’s no more noise at the door though and it feels like their feet are glued to the ground. El’s hands flex anxiously and Mike has his hand on the hilt of his sword, it strapped to his back in the makeshift harness he had created for it with some of Terry’s old belts.

 

It leaves them all the more shocked when the kitchen window shatters and several hands launch through, followed by bodies.

 

Infected bodies.

 

The two teens yell out and El releases almost an unplanned burst of energy at them as a distraction before they take off towards the back of the house. Barreling down the hallway, El throws open the bathroom door with mind and the two dart in.

 

Mike immediately plants his feet at the door once they’re in, holding it in place even after locking it. El drops back down by the tub, pulling her feet into a cross-legged seated position.

 

Kimberly’s reminders about breathing techniques play over in her mind and she racks her brain for a one of her lessons to help come to her to bring herself to a more calm mindset. The cold tub cuts through to her sweaty back and she wills her brain to slow down.

 

Before closing her eyes, she looks up at Mike at the door. He gives her a tense grin but the sparkle in his eyes shines above the fear and brings back her courage.

 

Shutting her eyes tightly, El brings to mind one of her favorite teachings about meditation. It’s one that focuses on channeling the goodness that is already inside us. It’s one that speaks to her and helps ground her when she’s filled with doubt about her powers and her occasional questioning of if she’s a good person. If after everything she’s gone through, if she is still someone worth living this life.

 

She slowly begins to drown out the sound of the banging on the door and Mike’s anxious muttering. Her hands unclench from her fists and she allows them to unfurl as she centers herself. Her power is coursing through her, pounding at her skin to be released.

 

A deep breath in.

 

A deep breath out.

 

“Now,” she whispers.


	2. Chapter 2

It had only supposed to been a quick stop at the grocery store, that was all. 

 

But that would have been too easy.

 

After escaping the zombies at Terry’s home, El and Mike had finished packing up and booked it out of there. There weren’t as many resources out there and El knew it was time to move on. They didn’t even have a destination completely in mind, but there was a town relatively close by and they knew they needed to pick up more supplies, so it looked like that’s where they were going first. 

 

Post-apocalyptic movies rarely show the characters having to eat, but Mike had found that running for his life hadn’t curbed his appetite at all.

 

There was also the need for El to keep her powers at their peak levels.

 

She had more stamina than he had ever remembered her having before, but she still became worn out if she had to use them extensively. Example: taking three zombies out all at once just hours ago. Mike was always impressed with her, even if it was something as small as floating his books over to him while he would study, and watching her destroy zombies was absolutely unreal to watch. But it also hurt him to see her put strain on herself and so while she would meditate or sleep to regain energy, he would practice any fighting moves he could think of. She was always going to be the strongest one of the two, but he was determined to have her back no matter what.

 

The interruption from the infected had thrown them off their timing and the sun was easily in mid-day now as Mike drove Hopper’s truck down an empty street. Next to him, El had passed out in a somewhat restless sleep.

 

A storm hovered on the horizon, inching closer to them as they neared the closest town in the direction they had decided to go in.

 

When they finally pull up to the town, the storm is nearly upon them and the electricity in the air is nearly palpable. El has finally woken up and their stomachs rumble nearly in synchrony. Mike slows the car down to a crawl as they prowl through the town, looking for a grocery store. The area had clearly been evacuated for a while, though it looked like there were maybe a couple survivors left if the quickly drawn blinds were any indications in the few homes they passed. Eventually the pulled up to what looked like a small market and they threw the truck in park before making their way in.

 

It felt weird to El that for the first half of her life she had grown up not knowing anything about the outside world, and had in a sense returned to that feeling now. For instance, she didn’t know what the hell a grocery store was until she was twelve. Now it’s come full circle in a sense and now they don’t have to pay for the food at one, her life turning upside down again and not following a traditional path.

 

The two of them joke around as they make their way through the dilapidated market. It’s clearly been ransacked already throughout this, but it’s worth it even for the scraps that have been left over.

 

El manages to find a couple more sugary items for them, but they are able to get a couple basics of bread and some canned food that can last them for a bit. The freezers have been turned off for a little while from the looks of it, but the ultimate score is when El finds a defrosted box of Eggos. 

 

Fuck it, it’s the damn apocalypse she’ll willingly eat limp once-frozen waffles. 

 

Mike teases her about creating a habit of stealing of Eggos, so she chucks a cat toy at him that been left on one of the shelves. 

 

They were back outside, mid-way through dumping the couple bags of food they had managed to get into the the truck, when Mike looked up, a curious expression on his face. El realized that he had stopped putting things, instead having froze with a bag halfway up, and turned to see where he was looking.

 

A small girl was slowly walking past the front of the grocery store, a skittish look to her.

 

El had barely processed it before Mike let out a shout to the girl. She was startled and looked over at them, nervously wringing her hands, before darting away. Mike looks down at El and she can see the idea forming behind his eyes before he even says anything.

 

“We should see if she needs help. There’s no way someone her age should be out here without someone looking after her, it’s too dangerous.”

 

El looks at the food and the truck briefly before looking back at him. A part of her just wants to run, the instinctual part of her that she had developed in order to live all of those years ago. But looking out for just herself isn’t what she does anymore. She and Mike are partners. Plus he has a point, it feels bad to leave a small child alone when a zombie could appear at any moment.

 

“Okay, let’s go check with her and see if we can give her a ride back home,” she concedes. 

 

But when they start to walk towards where they saw her last, they can’t find her anywhere. That is until El points out a small figure in white making its way in the grassy area behind the market.

 

As if the situation couldn’t get any more out of El’s comfort zone, the girl was of course walking towards a graveyard. 

 

“What the hell?” She hissed under her breath, turning to look at Mike.

 

Mike looked momentarily confused before a light bulb went off and his face lit up. 

 

“Oh my god, I bet her parents died from the infections or something. That’s why she’s alone, she’s going to go see their graves,” he explains rapidly, already beginning to move towards the same direction as the girl.

 

A roll of thunder echoes above them and before El can try to convince Mike that they should just turn back and get the car, he’s taking off towards the girl. His long legs push him quickly after and soon he’s halfway across the ground.

 

Every fiber of El’s being screamed that this was a bad idea.

 

Regardless, with a sigh she took off after her boyfriend. She loved how protective of a person he was and how he was so caring, almost to a fault. Just maybe not as much right now.

 

“You’re lucky I love you,” she mumbles under her breath to his back as she chases after him.

 

Running through the graveyard, Mike called out to the young girl again but she still didn’t turn around. El pushed to keep up with him, trying to dodge the various gravestones as Mike zigzagged across the grounds. 

 

As they climbed over the hill, a small church appeared at the base. The girl had opened the door and slipped inside, just out of their reach.

 

The humidity and impending storm had made the ground damp, causing the two teens to almost literally slide down the hill. El’s shirt is clinging to her back with sweat and Mike’s hair is plastered to his forehead. She can only hope the skies open up on them and alleviate the oppressive heat, but for now the thunder just rumbles ominously overhead.

 

When Mike’s hand touches the large handle on the door to the church, a bolt of heat lightening crosses the sky in a crack.

 

The two jump, nervously laughing at how on edge they are. 

 

Whether or not the storm is an omen or not El isn’t sure, but she doesn’t get the chance to contemplate it before Mike has opened the door and they step inside.

 

It only takes a bit of walking through the small building to see that the girl has completely disappeared and Mike throws his hands up in the air. 

 

“I don’t know how I lost her,” he swore, turning on his heel to look around them once again.

 

El gave him a sympathetic look while she caught her breath from the run down to here, looking around them in curiosity. She wasn’t sure she had ever been in a church before; Hopper certainly had never taken her. She supposed in a small town it wasn’t as crazy as the giant cathedrals she had learned about and this one was relatively plain, but she could imagine that in a normal world it was usually bustling and cozy with churchgoers. 

 

Her thoughts and Mike’s pacing were broken by a sound that was all too familiar at this point. 

 

The grunting that was coming from one of the bathrooms was not comforting and as the door swung open, El and Mike already were ready for what came through the door.

 

The zombie looked fresher than some of the recent ones they had been seeing, though the decay had certainly come for it. Its hair was stringy, parts of it having already fallen out in clumps around its head. Rotting teeth led to a cavernous mouth that had bloody saliva pooling out of it, and when it wiped it away, some bone glared a bright white through massive skin rips.

 

After quickly processing the situation in front of them, both immediately looked at each other and yelled, “RUN.”

 

Taking off, Mike’s hand grabbed El’s to help give her the extra momentum that came with his long legs. A part of his brain almost got a laugh out of the fact that he had run more now in the past week than he had in, well probably his whole life. The other part of his brain reminded him that it wasn’t actually funny because it felt like his fucking heart was going to die from exhaustion if they kept having to do this because his cardio skills were nonexistent. 

 

He prayed to the universe that the door up ahead that he was aiming for was similar enough to the small Hawkins church his mom would drag the family to for their once-a-year appearance for Christmas. The thing that was currently chasing after them had been the one thing in their way to getting to the exit and he wanted as much space in between them as possible.

 

Luck was on their side and when he flung open the door, he was greeted by the sight of rows and rows of pews all angled towards the center of the room.

 

It’s perfect. It gives them plenty of room and they can’t be snuck up on. 

 

Shutting the door quickly before the zombie can catch up to them, the two form a plan. 

 

Minutes later, they can hear a scratching at the door. It’s almost like a dog waiting to be let in. Except for you know, it’s a zombie waiting to come in and devour their brains.

 

El raises her hand slowly, planting her feet wide. She’s standing in the main walkway between the pews, her back to the towering, cracked cross as she faced the door. 

 

She tried to not think about what that symbolized.

 

With a nod towards Mike, she tilts her head to the side with a small jerk and the door opens with a creak. As it eases open, a long shadow appears in the slit of light from the frame and the stench of stale death beings to waft through the room. Once the door is fully open, the zombie shuffles its way in, sniffing the air and letting out a grunt when it spots El. 

 

With a stumble, it begins to hurry its way towards her. Arm still outreached, El narrows her eyes and tilts her head down.

 

The zombie of course has no idea what’s coming, all it knows it that it smells food. And the need to consume overpowers any type of awareness, which means that when El causes it to freeze it can’t figure out why it stopped being able to move. After struggling for a bit to lift its legs, its body jerks and its eyes widen in fear, as if it can tell what’s about to happen. It lets out a screech and claws at the air, spittle coming down from its jaw. El’s hand is shaking just slightly as she holds it up, concentrating all of her energy on it. Right on cue though, Mike moves up from under the pew he had rolled himself under and is right behind the zombie.

 

El balls her hand into a fist as Mike’s arm swings back, and the zombie’s body is pulled taut just in time for Mike to send the sword through its chest.

 

It pierces through, a flash of silver shooting up towards the ceiling as it goes through the back and out the chest. Inky blood drips from it and begins to run from the wound down to the ground. Slack-jawed, the body slumps on Mike’s sword as El releases her hold on it. With a yank, Mike pulls the sword back out and it falls to the ground.

 

Chest heaving, El drops down into the closest pew to her, gulping in deep breaths of air. It’s been almost too much again and she knows she needs to recharge. Mike walks over and drops a kiss on the top of her head and she gratefully leans into his chest. 

 

“We’ll find somewhere good for tonight, I promise,” he whispers. “We can get some real sleep and you’ll be back to 100%.” 

 

She’ll never be over his ability to practically read her mind and she’s thankful once again that he was one of the ones who helped her so many years ago.

 

She lifts her head up to speak but notices a flash of movement behind him. Quickly standing, she brushes past him and points towards the open door where the zombie had come in through.

 

“That girl. I think I just saw her.”

 

Mike whirls around but the hallway is empty.

 

“Let’s go,” he urges, wiping his sword on his jeans before hurrying out. El jogs to catch up to him and they carefully dodge the body on the floor before they empty back out into the hallway. 

 

They can hear soft giggles down the hall and they move towards it. As they follow it down, it leads them to what looks like must have been a custodial closet. El tentatively grabs the doorknob and opens it slowly, the two peering in. The little girl is, in fact, in the closet.

 

She’s seated on the ground, rubbing her stomach. She tilts her head up at them and her eyes look up at them unblinkingly. El isn’t sure if it’s her or Mike that sucks in their breath louder. 

 

The whites of her eyes have disappeared, hidden under a tangling of blood vessels and veins. Her skin is sickly, another feature not noticeable until now with her facing them. There’s stains the color of rust streaked across her mouth and chin. Mike staggers back while he tries to stop his dry heaving. El doesn’t waste any time, taking a large step back and slamming the door shut with a bang that practically shakes the frame. A snap of her fingers and the lock clicks into place.

 

Holy shit.

 

They stand there silently. Mike has one hand against the wall, bent at the waist as he composes himself. El can’t blame him, she feels sick as well. But she knows there’s only one answer so she refocuses her gaze on the door and raises her hand up, visualizing the young girl on the other side. She starts to close her eyes.

 

Lunging forward, Mike pushes her arm aside and El’s eyes fly open as she wrenches her arm out of his grasp.

 

“You can’t kill her,” Mike says, a low rumbling in his voice that she wasn’t used to. 

 

His apparent anger was only matched by her own.

 

“Mike! She’s infected, what the hell else are we supposed to do?” El raged, throwing her finger towards the door in front of them.

 

Mike ran his hands through his hair and let out a noise of frustration. 

 

“Because she’s Holly’s age! And I guess that makes me weak then. But you know what else? You’re the one who said you thought this was all coming from the lab. So you know who she also reminds me of? _You_.” Mike’s voice is strangled with emotion and his eyes are pleading. “El, she’s you. She’s had her childhood ripped away from her because some monster is playing God in a lab.”

 

El’s mouth drops and she manages to choke out a protest of “She’s not me–” before her throat closes around her words.

 

Mike’s words were hard to hear. But she couldn’t escape their truth.

 

While this girl no doubt had never known about the existence of the lab, hadn’t grown up as a test subject her whole life like El, it didn’t matter anymore. If El was right, that the lab really was the root of this zombie apocalypse, then they had indeed stolen the childhood of yet another young girl.

 

El let out a screech of frustration and paced away from Mike, her hands to her head as she stared at the wall in front of her.

 

Fuck. What were they supposed to do?

 

Flashes of her past keep running through her mind and she knows deep in her heart she can’t kill the infected girl.

 

Tears are streaming down her face when she turns back to Mike, him mirroring her in being overwhelmed by a sea of emotions. She lets out a shaky breath and nods her head.

 

“We’ll leave her. I don’t know if the smartest thing to do to be honest, but it’s the only thing we can do,” she says.

 

Mike’s shoulders relax from their hunched position and he pulls El into a tight hug. She’s crying. Not just for the girl but for herself, and all of the other children who have lost their innocence to these bad men and their experiments. 

 

There is no other option.

 

They have to turn back and go to Hawkins.

 

* * *

 

They’re about thirty minutes outside of the lab when El decides it might be a good idea to do a quick check in the Void to see if she can get a heads up on what to expect when they get there. The last thing they need is more surprises. 

 

She’s never done it in a moving car before, or any car at all really, so she’s not sure how strong the connection will be but it’s worth a shot. 

 

So grabbing one of the rags that they had snagged from Terry’s house, she tied it around her face and tried to focus. Mike found a radio station that had pure static (not hard to do in their current situation) to help provide a background of white noise for her. Before she slipped into the Void, she could feel it tugging at her, she gave Mike’s hand a quick squeeze.

 

And then she was back.

 

Had it really only been a couple weeks since she had last been here? Since she had first seen Papa again and started to feel that horrible feeling that something was wrong?

 

She had perfectly envisioned the lab, the place that had been her prison for so many years. The place that had trapped her without her even knowing of the world outside of it. The cold, towering cement building that was chock-full of horrible memories.

 

But now she was looking for answers. 

 

The connection was in and out some, she could still vaguely hear the buzzing of the static from the truck versus the complete silence she normally did. But it was good enough and she began to move forward. Towards what, she wasn’t entirely sure, but she hoped she would be able to find a clue to what they were heading into.

 

First there’s the sound of crunching glass, like footsteps on broken shards.

 

It’s followed by a girl’s voice, distant in the struggling connection.

 

“I guess we follow the trail of blood?” 

 

El doesn’t recognize the voice, but the infected pretty much never talk so she mentally notes to herself that there are actually people that are alive at the lab. But who’s side are they on?

 

Her question isn’t answered for a minute, but she can see figures starting to appear. They’re dissolving into her line of sight and she can make out that they’re not very tall, maybe even her height or so. They’re standing in front of her with their backs to her, as if they’re waiting for something. There’s a ding, alerting El to that they’re most likely standing by an elevator. It must have opened because they step forward slightly, but she can see them physically react.

 

Her earlier question about allegiances is answered though just a minute after, nearly causing her to entirely lose her connection.

 

She hears him first and is almost in disbelief.

 

“Everything’s always in the basements right?”

 

His voice is exactly how it had sounded last, save for a hint of exhaustion and fear. And when the figures turn, even as parts of them go in and out of the dusty mirage, she recognizes him immediately. The surprise of seeing him in the lab of all places though, and the confirmation that it’s him, is what ultimately pushes her out of the Void and she yanks the towel away from her eyes.

 

“El! Are you okay? What did you see?” Mike asks wildly, trying to look both at her in concern and keep his eyes on the road.

 

“It’s Lucas,” she says breathlessly. “He’s there, at the lab.”

 

Mike’s jaw drops and he stares at her in disbelief.

 

“What the actual fuck is he doing there??”

 

El shakes her head, unable to stop the laughter that’s building up in her. 

 

It’s so surreal.

 

“I have no idea, but I do know that we need to haul ass and catch up to them.” 

 

Without a word, Mike presses down on the gas harder and the truck rumbles as they intensify their push back home and back to the lab.

 

It’s almost exactly how El remembers it, though it’s still a distant memory after these years. But the looming structure is just as ominous as it was when she first stepped outside of it, clutching onto the hand of the gruff, but nice sheriff who pulled her from her cell of a bedroom. When she had looked back up at it, she had never imagined that she would see it again. When she later on took her new best friends to see it, to help explain why she was the way she was, she thought that time would be the last time she looked up it.

 

If she survives this zombie apocalypse, she’s going to burn the whole lab down so that this is actually the last time she ever sees it.

 

The heat is nearly buzzing as they park the truck and while some of the other cars in the parking lot look like they’ve been there for a while, there’s one that’s different.

 

“Think that’s how they got here?” Mike asks, motioning to an old blue Camaro parked near the front of the building. 

 

“Looks like it,” El replies distractedly, taking a deep breath as she prepared to confront the demons of the lab once more.

 

The door is busted open, shards of glass littering the ground. They give each other a quick glance, a wordless agreement, and then move to make their way in. Mike goes first, sword at the ready, but it’s not necessary. The only bodies in there are dead ones, far gone in their decomposition. A trail of blood leads the way to the elevators in the hallway, giving El brief flashbacks to her trip to the Void and a direction for them to go.

 

“There,” she says, pointing to the doors. Mike nods grimly and they advance.

 

The bodies in the elevator are even more ghastly than the ones in the front lobby area, El closing her eyes at the sight. Mike lets out a slow exhale, looking anywhere but down at the ground as they step into the elevator. 

 

El pushes the button to go down to the basement, Lucas’ words echoing in her mind. She can only pray that they’re still down there. 

 

And still alive.

 

The doors open and El feels a rush of memories nearly overtake her. She had spent so many hours being dragged through these halls, carried in Papa’s arms, nearly passed out from the experiments. 

 

The root of her life could very well be the root of the infection, and the idea of helped push her through the nerves she needed to keep at bay. They had a job to do. 

 

Mike points towards the ground with his sword.

 

“Look, a couple of footprints from the blood. Think it’s a safe bet that those are what we follow?”

 

“Let’s do it.”

 

They grow silent as they pace the halls, waiting for a clue. Just a ways down the hall the footprints had disappeared and they had lost their lead. Their ears are straining for any sound or hint towards the fate of their friend and his new companion. The girl’s red hair still shone in El’s memory and she hoped that when they found them, it would be with them alive.

 

Suddenly there’s an echo of noise down one of the corridors and El looks frantically at Mike, who in turns lifts his finger to his mouth in a reminder to be quiet. They don’t know what they’re about to find. They begin to edge down the hall until it becomes more obvious that they’re hearing foots thudding against the ground. Running.

 

It has to be them. 

 

The two immediately begin to jog down the hallway, still trying to be careful to not alert anyone (or _anything_ ) to their arrival. 

 

They hear a shout from down the way and they pick up their pace, followed by a door slamming. After what feels like ages, with the hallways becoming never-ending, they round the corner and they barely see the backs of two zombies before they disappear into a room.

 

That has to be where Lucas and the girl are.

 

With a nod to each other, Mike and El push forward. 

 

The first thing El sees when they stumble into the doorframe to the room is a zombie advancing on the redheaded girl she had seen briefly in the Void. Without thinking, she thrusts her hand forward and shoots out a burst of energy towards it.

 

Like as if a hook had been shot into it, the body jerks upwards and smashes into the ceiling. The infection had been in it long enough that when combined with the strength of El’s power, it bursts at the impact and body parts spray out. Various limbs break off and there’s a splattering of body fluids that paint the ceiling.

 

Beside her, Mike had lunged forward with his sword and impaled the zombie that had been narrowing in on Lucas. While El had moved towards the one to their right, his eyes had immediately spotted his best friend and the infected zombie that had been advancing on him. It took only two steps and a forceful punch with his arm to send his sword piercing through the chest of it. It lets out almost a wail as it looks down at itself, before collapsing to the ground.

 

“Mike! El!” Lucas yells out, his body swaying in a moment of exhaustion before leaping over the body to get to the two of them.

 

Mike and Lucas embrace first, a giant hug with claps on the back, before Lucas moves to hug El, a tight hug with him playfully tugging on her curls.

 

As they pull apart, Mike and Lucas immediately jump into their usual quick back and forth.

 

“Dude! How the hell did you guys know how to find us?”

 

“El found you, it was amazing. She tracked you–”

 

“Whoa she tracked us?? That’s crazy, I’ve never thought about being on the receiving end you can’t even tell!”

 

“Yeah! And so we kicked ass to get back over here.”

 

“Holy shit is that your  Anduril? That’s the weapon you picked?”

 

“Christ Lucas it’s like you think I’d be able to pick anything else.”

 

The two would have no doubt kept going for hours, barely allowing the other to get a sentence out before the other began speaking, but El hadn’t taken her eyes off of the unknown teen standing with them. Finally she breaks through their chatter.

 

" Aren’t you going to introduce us?” She keeps her voice low and cocks her head as she looks at the redhead, her eyes darting back over to Lucas with curiosity.

 

Lucas’ eyes widen as if remembering that somehow they don’t all know each other, then quickly spins around with a laugh to grab the girl’s hand and pulls her up so that she’s no longer just hanging back behind them. Mike and El can’t miss him intertwining their fingers together.

 

“This is Max, I found her in Chicago. She’s a part of the party now,” Lucas replies, giving the girl a wide grin before looking back at Mike and El expectantly. 

 

The two look at each other. Years ago maybe this would have put them both on edge. But this was a new world and they needed all of the help they could get. And for Lucas to have chosen her, they know that this isn’t a joking matter. _Plus the hand holding?!_

 

They turn back to the duo in front of them and Mike shrugs, conveying that they’re cool with it.

 

“Okay, so what are you guys doing back here in Hawkins then?”

 

It was Max and Lucas’ turn to look at each other.

 

“Well,” Max began slowly, “We’re pretty sure we just discovered the origin of the infection.”

 

At that, both Mike and El’s eyes widened and Lucas had a smile on this face that was practically lighting up the room as he anxiously waited for her to finish.

 

“And we want to end this shit.”

 

* * *

 

In order to properly “end this shit” however, the group agrees that they absolutely need to take care of their own needs first. 

 

They stumble out from the depths of the lab and into the outdoors. The afternoon is fading into the evening and for the first time in what feels like forever, there’s a light breeze that drifts through the air. It fluffs Mike and El’s curls and Max gratefully uses Lucas’ bandana to tie her hair up so that it’s off her neck. It’s bizarrely peaceful, in sharp contrast to what they had just gone through and learned. They split up to drive the cars back to the Sinclair house and make their way through the ghost town of Hawkins.

 

The universe agrees to give them a break and the night is uninterrupted by any chaos (Max does nearly jump out of her skin when a cat darts past them but she threatens to pinch Lucas if he breathes a word of it to the others). El is still regaining some of her strength so while the others get everything set up for the night, Mike encourages her to find a place where she can meditate and fully collect herself. She does so willingly, tucking herself back in the Sinclair family office. She slides her legs into a folded position and as she inhales deeply, she does what she can to let go off the stress of the day, of what they learned. She erases the destruction of the zombies and eases away the repeating words of the letter in her mind. 

 

Breathe in.

 

Breathe out.

 

She lets her breath out in a whoosh, practicing the deep breathing exercises she had incorporated into her life. Somehow with all of this zombie business, it already feels like a lifetime ago when she first learned it but she couldn’t be more thankful for it than she is now. It’s too unsettling to imagine where they would be if she’d hadn’t learned to control herself like this.

 

After a bit, when she feels like she’s fully completed her breath cycles and grounded herself again after the excessive use of her powers that day, she slips back out to join the others. 

 

They’ve shifted everything downstairs to the Sinclairs’ living room, banking on having a quick exit if necessary and having the safety in numbers by sleeping together.

 

Lucas is passed on the couch, his hand just a breath away from Max’s head where he had fallen asleep with his fingers drifting through her long locks. Max had snagged one of Lucas’ dad’s old sleeping bags and Mike and El had squeezed onto an air mattress, locked in a spooning position by Mike’s arms wrapped protectively around her.

 

El had woken up briefly to the sound of a lone dog barking outside and was currently drifting in and out of sleep. She noticed however that Max had woken up as well and the two briefly made eye contact.

 

“That was pretty badass by the way,” Max said quietly, adjusting herself that she could see El in the moonlight. “The way you took it out.”

 

El murmured a thanks and stared at the girl across from her.

 

“You must be special,” she eventually says, just when Max had been starting to think she had fallen back asleep.

 

“Why’s that?”

 

El props her head up slightly on her hand before answering.

 

“Lucas is…” she hunts for the right word, “someone who is cautious about who he brings into this life. He’s someone that values trust but you also have to earn it. Speaking from experience,” she tacks on at the end with a small smirk at the memory.

 

Max’s expression grows confused and El tries to better explain herself.

 

“For him to already trust you just means a lot. And it makes it easy for me and Mike to trust you as well. So yeah, you must be a really special person.”

 

Max tucks her head down and El can barely see in the dark a bashful smile growing on the girl’s face. They don’t end up saying much more, just a couple passing thoughts before they fall back into a deep slumber.

 

* * *

 

The next morning comes sooner than expected though.

 

A banging on the front door shocks the teens into alertness. 

 

Mike nearly rolls off of the air mattress, bringing a startled El with him. Lucas had jerked off of the couch into a seated position and Max had shot out of the sleeping bag, her hand immediately going to the shovel that she had placed next to her before going to bed. 

 

There’s a pause before the pounding against the wood begins again.

 

“Fuck,” Lucas mutters under his breath as he crawls over the couch. Grabbing the rifle from the kitchen table, he makes his way slowly towards the door.

 

“What exactly do you think you are doing?” Max demanded indignantly, her hushed whisper coming out as close to a shout as she dared.

 

“I can get the door,” El said quietly, giving Max what she hoped was a comforting look.

 

Lucas nodded and paused halfway across the front foyer, raising the rifle up to face the door. El narrowed her gaze and sat up straighter so that she could better position herself. A second passes and the sound of the door unlocking breaks the heavy knocking and then she slowly opens the door with her mind.

 

Later when the four of them are talking to each other, each of them swears that what happened next is the last thing they expected. Mike swears that never in a million years, if he had been writing a post-apocalyptic story, would he have thought to have done this. But here they were.

 

A tall, black man steps into the front foyer. He’s dressed from head to toe in Army fatigues and has a radio held up to his mouth. He carries himself in confidence and he’s also weaponless, which makes for a startling contrast compared to Lucas who is aiming right at him. However the differences end there, and it only takes a moment for the others to recognize the features of Lucas’ father.

 

“What - what the hell? Dad?” Lucas sputters, quickly lowering the rifle.

 

Mr. Sinclair (or really, General Sinclair seeing as how he was in uniform) let out a loud exhale of relief and the two embraced each other in a hug. Behind them, three more soldiers walked into the house, looking slightly distressed as well as at attention. 

 

The alarmed expression on the others’ faces melted away and they made their way up to join the others. Max hung back some, watching as the others went first. After hugging his son for a long time, Mr. Sinclair rotated so that he could hug Mike and El as well.

 

“It’s so good to see you kids alive,” he said, looking over each of them proudly and clapping Lucas on the back. “And who is this one? I don’t think we’ve met.”

 

Max gave a tentative smile and accepted his offer of a handshake, answering with “I’m Max. Lucas and I found each other in Chicago. I guess we’re all kind of a team now.”

 

Everyone relocates to the kitchen, two of the soldiers standing guard at the door while Mr. Sinclair, the third soldier, and the teens circle up. 

 

“How’d you find us?” Lucas asks as they all situate themselves, his arm naturally reaching out for Max’s. She intertwines her fingers into his and places her shovel on the counter behind them.

 

“We’ve had key infection zones monitored since the outbreak. And of course since our house is here, I kept an extra eye on it. When I was seeing a lot of activity here it made me concerned, so I organized a small team to head out here and see what was up. We weren’t sure if this was a nesting area for the infected or not.”

 

At that the four teens all look at each other, silently figuring out if now was the time.

 

Mike starts off, “Well… you might not actually be too far off with that theory.” 

 

“We all went to that Hawkins lab, and it looks like we figured out the possible origin for all of this,” Max says, picking up where Mike had trailed off.

 

“We found a letter,” Lucas further explains. “They were testing on people, prisoners, and it went wrong. I guess something with whatever they were injecting people with. And somehow it’s spreading and that’s how they’ve become zombies - infected, whatever.” 

 

The silence goes on too long as Mr. Sinclair and the other soldier look at each other, heavy expressions on their faces. 

 

“You didn’t know about this did you Dad?” Lucas asks, the accusing tone in his voice coming out sharply as he pushes away from the counter, Max just barely holding him back.

 

His dad clears his throat.

 

“No, I promise I didn’t know about it. There were rumors circulating in inner rings that the president had contracted a private group to develop new weapons but the military so far had been left out of it, so we know very little. This would be the first step towards knowing what’s actually going on.”

 

El finally speaks, her low voice interrupting the conversation.

 

“I know who’s in charge of it.”

 

Everyone stops and turns to her. She’s partially tucked behind Mike, leaning against the counter. At this she steps out, she shakily explains that the name that had been on the letter Lucas and Max had found was from Martin Brenner. The same man who (she spared some very specific details), had conducted experiments on her as a child until being the lab was raided by the FBI and Hawkins police force.

 

“He must have been able to somehow get a deal to keep working in the lab,” she finished, now looking steadily at Mr. Sinclair. “But he’s the private contractor and he’s the one we need to get to for answers. Maybe even a cure. But definitely to stop this at least.”

 

The soldier finally speaks up, a middle-aged blonde man with a weathered face. He had been silent this whole time, but he has a look on his face that reflects the gears of his mind spinning.

 

“This Brenner guy, does he have crazy white hair? For someone that might not really be that old?”

 

El gulps and nods, not sure where this is going.

 

“Yeah I think I’ve seen him,” he says, giving a small shrug. “At the base we’ve been stationed and quarantining people at back in DC. Just glimpses of him, but that’s gotta be him. There can’t be that many Brenners out there.”

 

Mike’s grip around El’s shoulder stiffens and she can feel his heartbeat speed up. He’s never shied away from the anger he has for what she went through and she loops her arm around his waist. It’s not much but it helps him calm down as he looks at her, eyebrows scrunched together in worry.

 

“Then we go to DC,” he interjected suddenly, cutting off whatever it was Mr. Sinclair had opened his mouth to say.

 

Offering to chaperone a bunch of teens back to the capitol was clearly not was he was about to offer, if his face was any indication. He rubs his face in contemplation, looking around at the four. All of them had jumped to life at Mike’s offer and while he can’t quite figure out why this would be the best idea, he certainly can’t leave them behind here in Hawkins.

 

“I suppose we have the room, we’ve got a chopper just outside of town. Better than leaving you all unsupervised and in danger out here.”

 

Lucas lets out a whoop and Mike has a determined grin on his face. Max shoots a look towards El and she responds with a small smile. She knows Max has only begun to learn bits of her past, and she appreciates the concern that this might be too much. But Brenner has crossed too many lines unpunished. 

 

And if she has to be the one to deliver the final blow, then god damn it she’s going to be the one that does it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry this one took so much longer to get out! Pretty much the usual explanations of work taking over, as well as I’ve been busy setting up the basis for a Western AU over on my Tumblr, and also working on my Mileven college AU. I’ve got a section written already for the next chapter for this one though so hopefully we can get back into the swing of it! I hope you enjoyed the new chapter!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whomp - sorry this took so long to update! I lost of a lot inspiration for it, and of course have been spending a lot of time focusing on my Western AU. But one morning while on a run I got hit with the image of part of this chapter and now it's all I've been focusing on! I've really loved getting back into and am so happy with how this chapter turned out. As a heads up, this is the last full chapter and the next one is an epilogue :) Enjoy this new chapter!

The hushed whispers and quietness of the quarantine’s rest area make it easy for El to slip into a meditative state.

 

She was currently on a cot that she had shoved into the back of the corner of the cement room, along side the cots for the rest of her friends. At the moment though she was entirely alone, lying on her back on top of the scratchy blanket.

 

Her focus had initially been on one of the stains on the ceiling, focusing her gaze on it as she took deep breaths. 

 

Breathe in for five.

 

Out for seven.

 

Breathe in for five.

 

Out for seven.

 

The rhythm of her breathing, while also counting her breaths, had helped block out the sounds of the people around her and soon her eyes had fluttered shut. Instead of seeing the stain anymore, she felt her mind purely just concentrating and removing the distractions around her.

 

She had spent the previous hour explaining to the soldiers everything she knew about Martin Brenner. Leaving out the fact that she had telekinetic powers, she had gone over everything she had known and experienced. Every possible thing they could think of, they asked her.

 

It hadn’t been terrible.

 

But it had been far from fun. 

 

Instead El felt it had completely wiped her out, something she wasn’t used to experiencing unless it was from using her powers. Instead this was from having to dig up old memories. Pulling out scenes and moments that she had long ago sealed away. It had been exhausting to recant the things that she had experienced, creating an image of what Brenner was capable of doing for the men in camo who had stared intensely at her while she talked. 

 

Once she was done, she had been brought back out to the quarantine area, more tired than she had come in after _fighting fucking zombies_. 

 

She knew it was their job though, she really did want to help them with all of this.

 

But there was a part of her that felt in her bones that it was up to her to end all of this. Or at least be the one to stop Brenner, hopefully thereby making ending this whole zombie thing a lot faster.

 

Mike had been waiting anxiously for her when she had exited the makeshift office that the military had put up, sweeping her into his arms for a long hug. Gripping tightly to him, El had buried her face into his shoulder. Breathing in the scent of him. It felt like she was home. He had then taken her by the hand to a corner where Max and Lucas were waiting on cots for them.

 

They then had quickly launched into an explanation of where they had been while she had been being questioned. It turned out that the lower part of the quarantine was part of one of the old Metro stations in the city, resulting in long winding tunnels that spread out from the main area where they were. Managing to duck past some of the soldiers patrolling the boundaries, the three teens had then gone out to do some of their own exploring.

 

One of the tunnels had lead them to a large pile of rubble – but Lucas had quickly noticed that rather than randomly laying there. The cement blocks and miscellaneous chunks were actually rather strategically placed. 

 

A couple stabs later with Max’s shovel and the rubble fell away just enough for them to poke their heads in and see what they had discovered.

 

In Lucas’ excited ramblings, it had “looked like some sort medical, sci-fi place. Which I guess works because, you know, we’re sort of living in a post apocalyptic world.”

 

Max had agreed and added “it was clearly not a part of the metro. It’s definitely been added on.”

 

Mike had clutched at El’s hand and looked at her deeply, before saying in a hushed tone, “El, babe, I think that’s where Brenner is.”

 

El had nodded tiredly, but felt something race through her. They were so close, so close to being able to end this. 

 

The four had agreed that if they were going to go investigate, El needed to be at her full powers. So Mike grabbed an extra granola bar from Mr. Sinclair and once El had eaten it, she had settled onto the cot to recharge, bringing her to where she was now.

 

She was in the middle of a deep exhale, feeling her power relaxing in the center of her chest, when she suddenly dropped into the Void.

 

El let out the rest her breath in a gasp as she struggled back up to her feet.

 

“What the hell,” she muttered under her breath. She wasn’t sure she could remember the last time she had entered the Void without trying, let alone _ever_. 

 

But here she was, unsure of what had brought her here. 

 

Tentatively taking a step forward, El began to make her way through it. Hopefully she’d get a clue as to what had brought her here.

 

Soon a silhouetted figure began to come into view.

 

It felt like those couple weeks ago when she had first seen him in the Void. When she had first begun to understand how much deeper everything ran.

 

_Papa._

 

Her thoughts began to race as she neared him, his white hair gleaming as his back was to her. She wasn’t frozen by fear this time. Last time she had stumbled upon them because she had concentrated on her nightmares that she had been having. Imagining the halls that had come to her in fragments. This time, she was in the Void simply after having spent the last hour or so talking about him. Another sign of her powers strengthening, even in ways she hadn’t realized yet.

 

And here he was.

 

“How long do you think we have?” The sound of his voice alone sent involuntary shivers down her spine.

 

A younger man in front of him shuffled nervously.

 

“Not long. I overheard one of the radio messages that a crew was coming in late last night and that’s when I heard them mention your name. Someone’s managed to connect the dots.”

 

“Well we know it’s not these idiotic soldiers,” Papa replied with a snort. “They’ve managed to miss our access to the quarantine this entire time.”

 

“No, uh,” the man’s other man’s face went up an octave. “They mentioned a girl.”

 

At that, Papa’s posture tightens. His fists clench subtly. He turns and takes a deep breath, facing away from the scientist he was talking to. He’s looking above El and while she knows he wouldn’t be able to see her anyway, she’s secretly thankful that he’s not looking through her either.

 

“She’s back then,” he says in a hushed, controlled tone. “Eleven has returned to me.”

 

El is yanked out of the Void with a gasp, which turns into a yelp when she realizes that Mike is right in front of her.

 

“El, are you okay?” He asks, his voice tinged with concern as he places a hand delicately on one of hers. 

 

She chokes in air, looking around them nervously to see who had all seen her coming out of it. Luckily, it’s just Max and Lucas around them while everyone else sits in concentrated groups, ignoring others. Finally her breath settled back down and she felt like she could see straight again. 

 

“I saw him,” she whispered, her eyes trained on the soldiers patrolling the sleeping quarters. “I think… I think talking about him so much earlier made the connection necessary to find people. He’s here. I think you’re right about that hallway.”

 

Mike, Lucas, and Max all quickly glance at each other before looking back at El.

 

“Do you think you’re ready?”

 

It’s Max asking this time, worry covering her face. 

 

On the helicopter ride down to DC from Hawkins, the girls had sat next to each on the inside of each of their boyfriends. While nearly impossible to talk while on the helicopter, especially surrounded by the US Army, they had briefly conversed and their bond was quickly growing. They were two teenage girls, lost from family and any connections until joining up with two very special boys. 

 

El nodded, her confidence growing.

 

“He knows I’m here. He might do something drastic if we don’t act soon.”

 

Mike bobbed his head in agreement, tightening his hold on her hand.

 

“Then let’s sneak out of here soon and grab our weapons. It’s time to get this bastard.”

 

* * *

 

“Getting the bastard” ended up meaning that they had to wait a couple hours.

 

But once the coast was clear of the soldiers and most of the other people in the quarantine had drifted to other places, they had snuck their weapons out of Mr. Sinclair’s office and made their way into the labyrinth of the metro. 

 

The electric current had been out for a while by now, but there were still some areas where a small piece of a walkway stuck out from the wall so the teens were able to use that most of the trip down. Parts of the rails were completely damaged and El was fairly certain they passed a body or two, masked by shadows.

 

Soon they found the area where the three others had been earlier. The rubble pile was still there, a mixture of scattered pieces of the walls and what really was some clearly placed extra blocks of cement. Lucas pointed out the small opening they had created. A small circle of light was coming through it.

 

A few hits later with Max’s shovel, this time with the assistance of Mike and his height, and now it was big enough for them to crawl through.

 

“Let’s fucking do it,” Max said with a big grin, initiating the group’s movement by climbing through the hole first.

 

Lucas, with no intention of letting Max get too far out of his sight, shrugged to the two others and followed behind her. 

 

Before El was able to step through, Mike pulled on her hand so that she turned to face him. His face was pale with nerves, but a determined expression seemed to have taken the lead of his emotions. He leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on her forehead. Salty tears touched her forehead as she leaned into it, inhaling that special scent that had become purely Mike. It felt like so long ago that she had woken up during the night, after the dream that had catapulted them into this. And while fear had gripped them during all of this, she couldn’t imagine anyone else beside her.

 

“I’m scared,” he mumbled into her hair.

 

El nodded and pulled her head back.

 

“I am too,” she replied, placing a hand on his cheek and rubbing it gently.

 

“When we find him,” Mike began, determinedly phrasing the scenario as a success, “just remember who you’ve become since escaping.” _Who you’ve been with me_ , he silently added.

 

“Don’t let him get in your head.”

 

“I promise.”

 

Mike ducked his head to kiss her again when Max’s voice floated through the rubble.

 

“This shit is cute and all, but are we trying to catch this dude or what?”  


Mike rolled his eyes but he and El smiled all the same before following their friends into the hallway.

 

“Shall we?” Lucas waved towards the hallway and El gave a sharp nod of her head, and they moved on.

 

As they made their way deeper into this new area, it quickly became obvious that they had entered something akin to the basement of facility. It was as if it had merged with the metro system in a mix of stained white tiles and cement, all accented by yellow-tinged lighting. 

 

El bumped Lucas casually with her shoulder, fighting to keep her tone light.

 

“I get what you mean about the whole sci-fi feeling,” she said, her voice almost unconsciously coming out as a whisper.

 

Some of the tension in his face relaxed and he let out a soft laugh to himself.

 

Mike was helping lead the way, his sword drawn and Max reached out to quickly squeeze El’s hand.

 

“We’ve totally got this,” she said with a grin, her tongue poking out teasingly as she encouraged her new friend.

 

El found herself smiling back at her, thankful to not only have found a new friend, but one who was so understanding (and also totally willing to kick some zombie ass).

 

Their excitement fizzled out though when the sound of a door shutting echoed int the halls.

 

Soon footsteps began to make their way towards them.

 

A figure turned the corner and the teenagers froze, weapons at the ready. 

  
It was a man, probably only in his mid-thirties, wearing a lab coat and attempting to write something down while he walked. Resulting in him nearly reaching them before he had even realized they were in the hallway. He was clearly startled, dropping the pen that he had been using to mark something down on his clipboard. 

 

It quickly became an awkward staring competition.

 

The four teens stood anxiously in the a clump, while the man stood in the middle of the hallway with an unsure expression on his face. But as he began to look less at the others, and instead hone his stare in on El, the more the tension began to build between them all.

 

The man slowly raised his hand, shaking, up to his mouth. The group was silent as they stared each other down. Seconds ticked by before he suddenly jammed his thumb onto the walkie talkie’s button and began to yell into it. 

 

“Dr. Brenner! Dr. Brenner! She’s here, I repeat, she’s here! Over.”

 

El’s blood ran cold and she found herself frozen in place.

 

“SHUT YOUR MOUTH,” came a roar beside her, and before the rest of the group knew what was happening, Mike launched himself forward and tackled the man. The two of them dropped to the ground as they wrestled for the radio.

 

Lucas took the chance to jump forward and kick it further down the hall, Mike scrambling on top to pin the man down. 

 

“El, go!” he yelled with a grunt as he pushed the man’s hands away from his own face. 

 

She could barely move, her fingers itching to do what she could to help them.

 

“GO,” shouted Max before diving down to hold down the man’s ankles. 

 

It was now or never. 

 

Taking a deep breath, El nodded numbly and turned on her heel to begin running down the hallway. 

 

Her heart pumped frantically as she pushed herself forward.

 

This had all escalated too quickly. How had they just turned into the hallway only minutes ago? And that she was now running with what felt like demons of her past chasing at her heels? Everything felt too strange and too similar all at once.

 

She wasn’t sure how she knew where to go, where to run towards. But there was a deep pulse within her that felt like it was guiding her. Taking her from the winding cement and tile halls to a metal door tucked in the shadows of the flickering fluorescent lights.

 

It’s mercifully – or not depending on how you look at it – unlocked.

 

When she entered the new hallway, it evoked a clinical feel similar to the hallways she had walked as a child.

 

Another lab. Another testing location.

 

She keeps a light jog as she goes through the hall, towards another door. This one was white, a small square window on it and a flashing red light above it. 

 

That’s the one.

 

Slowing down to a walk, it feels like her heart is in her throat. When her hand touches the door handle, the metal is cold to the touch and she has to close her eyes briefly before wrenching it open. It opened with a click and she stepped into the room.

 

Her eyes adjusted to the brightness change, this room being more dimly lit, and stepped gingerly in. 

 

It was absolutely massive.

 

Towering cement walls encased the room, leading up to impossibly high ceiling. The floor itself was empty, a continuation of the cement from the walls with odd gouges and scratches in the floor itself. Almost if you could imagine what a large fight between dogs would be like, multiplied by who knows how much.

 

El tried to not look too closely at the blood splatters that stained the ground in a now deep brown color. 

 

It felt too quiet in here.

 

She craned her neck as she looked around. Large, almost garage door-like squares lined the walls and as her gaze continued up, she took in the site of glass paneled rooms which appeared to have multiple screens and white boards in them. 

 

When she finished looking around, her focus returned to the center of the room. At first she hadn’t been sure what it was, what was taking up an awkward chunk of the floor. It was a large cement block, jutting out from the back wall. It had claw marks up and down the sides and a similar blood pattern to the floor. And potentially some bullet holes from the looks of it. 

 

Her brown eyes narrowed though as she fought against the glare of the light, traveling up the cement walls of this thing to the top of it. 

 

It wasn’t quite an entire floor high, but it certainly was tall enough to make it almost awkward to look up. And then she took in the glass fencing that lined it, preventing what looked like a desk from toppling over the edge.

 

And then the silhouette of a man, standing upright along side the fence, as if he had been waiting for her to arrive.

 

“Eleven, welcome to my testing facility.”

 

_Papa._

 

No.

 

Not Papa.

 

Not anymore.

 

Brenner. Only Brenner. Her new father was Jim Hopper and she shook her head to erase that old term that had been so attached to the man now standing above her.

 

“You’re standing where we test out our subjects,” he explained, gesturing around them. “This is where we see if they are a scientific victory, or a failure. And lately, sadly, they’ve all been failures. Something went wrong with the DNA coding we were trying. We can’t get them to stop dying.”

 

He was still talking as if he thought she gave a shit about what he had been doing.

 

“I’m here to stop you,” she snapped when he finally stopped talking.

 

He stilled, rolling over a small silver object in his hand as he studied her.

 

“Can I see how much you’ve grown? How you’ve improved yourself?”

 

It’s as if he hadn’t heard her at all. He didn’t wait for her to respond to the odd question though, and instead clicks what appears to be a button on the thing in his hand and there’s a groaning as a panel begins to lift up on the wall to her side.

 

El feels like she’s been punched in the chest when an infected person stumbles out. It had been about 48 hours since she had last run into a zombie and this feels too soon already. _As if there was ever an appropriate time for this._

 

This one looks like it’s caught between life and death, a stagnant air of decay around it. Its eyes are perfectly in tact though and as the blackened eyes turn towards her, El gulps. But then feels strength begin to course through her.

 

One zombie? In the wide open space?

 

Let Brenner do his worst, she’s already dealt with much more than this.

 

She waited until it began to run towards her before she acted.

 

El bared her teeth and lifted the zombie up with her hand, clenching her fist in the air as it rose above her. With merely a twitch of her fingers, the zombie’s neck disintegrated and the body dropped to the floor in a cloud of bodily remains.

 

Brenner looks down at her, his gaze almost unreadable. His usual mask of disinterest is in place, but there are hints of intrigue on his face.

 

“I must say Eleven. You look like you’re stronger than ever.”

 

The pride in his voice swells a wave of rage throughout her and she practically spits on the ground in front of him. She feels like she’s beginning to shake.

 

“No thanks to you. I’m stronger because I chose to be. I decided to be better than what I was.”

 

He blinked at the fire in her voice but otherwise remained stoic. 

 

How very much like him.

 

He presses the button the remote again.

 

Suddenly another zombie comes barreling out of the shadows, a crazed cry coming from a clearly-damaged and decaying windpipe. El doesn’t even have to look this time, throwing her hand over casually and its torso breaks, a shadow of a memory of crushing soda cans flitting through her mind as it collapses to the ground in a crumpled mess.

 

“I made the choice to learn control, I found the power in myself,” she growled, continuing to make her way closer to the platform he’s standing on. “And I won’t go through these fucking tests with you.”

 

That makes him hesitate, his finger just above the button to release another zombie.

 

But he doesn’t, instead lowering his hand.

 

“You’ve been my greatest triumph all this time.”

 

The words erupt in shivers in the back of El’s skull.

 

“Before you, I was always just short of succeeding. And then when I held you after you were born, I knew that it would be you. Did you know I was the very first one to hold you? Your mother wasn’t able to, but I was there for you. I’ve always been there for you.”

 

She swallowed back her nausea, too on guard for any more potential zombies to fully be able to take in what he was saying. If she focused on it too much it made her feel lightheaded. Him bringing up her mother, those years of being locked away. It had been so long but it already felt like he was ripping a scab off of her, revealing a fresh wound that had never healed.

 

He let out a low chuckle.

 

“I know it’s hard to imagine. I wasn’t… the kindest during your time at the lab. But it was out of a sense of responsibility. And it’s a responsibility I wish I had acted on these last years.” 

 

He’s walking closer to the edge of the glance fencing around him, playing with the remote in his hand. 

 

“I was careless. I let the experiments get away from me this time. Obviously they weren’t supposed to crave human brains,” he practically laughs out loud at that. “But to have soldiers who can’t be killed because they’re already dead. Now that’s an advantage worth the price.”

 

El isn’t even sure if he wants her to say anything. Or even what she would say.

 

“You were supposed to be the way of the future. A super soldier.” His calm voice is developing a bit of an edge. “I had to resort to these mutants and genetic tests when you got away though. I can’t even begin to imagine the success our lab would have had if you had been able to stay.”

 

“Well it’s a good thing you fucking didn’t.”

 

The voice that came from behind was all too familiar. 

 

And the surprise on Brenner’s face told her all she needed to know.

 

El whirled around in a panic, her eyes landing on Mike as he caught his breath from running into the room.

 

_No no no no no no no no no._

 

Her heart struggled between the flood of emotions that took over her. Relief to see him and the love that they had for each other. The sheer terror in knowing that he had put himself in harm’s way and that the last thing she wanted was for Brenner to have access to him.

 

“Well,” Brenner said, an eerily mocking grin growing on his face. “If it isn’t a knight in shining armor coming to your rescue. He’s a bit… average for someone like you isn’t he?”

 

El shot him a glare before turning back to face Mike, who in turn himself was staring at Brenner with utter loathing.

 

“Don’t even think about saying a damn thing about her ever again,” Mike spat out.

 

Brenner’s face turned sour at that, the smirk slipping from his face and turning into a twisted frown. The lights behind him lit up his white hair like some sort of demonic halo. Even from the distance they were at, El could see his grip on the remote tighten. His knuckles turned white.

 

“Since Mr. Wheeler – oh yes Eleven, I know who he is don’t look so surprised – seems to want to play hero, let’s see how well-equipped he is for handling things,” he said coldly.

 

Fuck. 

 

It’s a simultaneous thought that races through both Mike and El’s minds. El can’t decide if she should run towards Mike or try to stop whatever it is Brenner is about to do to him. But it turns out that she isn’t going to have the opportunity to do either.

 

Brenner’s thumb hits into the remote once more.

 

With a screech, one of the panels on the side began to rise again. And yet again, another zombie comes out. This one is newly infected, only the beginnings of rotting flesh to indicate its future. That and the bloodshot eyes that flashed hungrily at the two of them.

 

But it was Mike who was closest.

 

And it was Mike that its eyes fell on last.

 

The zombie began to make its way towards him, dragging its now lame leg behind it at a gruesome angle. Mike stumbled backwards a bit, biting his lip in determination as he fought to keep his balance.

 

“I’m afraid you’re going to have to choose.”

 

El watches as Brenner gives her one last smile, a stretched out smirk on his god damn face and then turns on his heel to walk away. He’s going to make her choose her revenge… or Mike’s life. 

 

He had determined that Mike was her greatest weakness and made the gamble that he would be able to get out by putting Mike’s life in danger.

 

The scream that came from El was ripped from her throat before she realized she had even opened her mouth.

 

It pierced the cavernous room and she simultaneously threw her arms up, one to each side. The zombie stumbled as her power snared it, yanking it to an unmoving, upright position. The other hand directed her power towards Brenner, forcing him to freeze in place. There was just enough of an imbalance in how she was channeling it that he was able to just barely rotate to face her, his facial expression betraying the first ounce of fear she had seen in him. His plan wasn’t exactly going how he had expected.

 

El curled her fingers in, feeling the power tighten in a more concentrated stream of energy. Her left hand was beginning to shake. She could almost feel electric sparks coming out of her palm and an all too familiar taste of metallic blood as it began to slip from her nose into her mouth. The zombie looked like it was beginning to panic, veins of black blood beginning to raise up on its forehead – the only evidence of its straining against its magical bonds.

 

The door opened with an echoing clang as it hit the wall. 

 

El didn’t let herself turn around to see who had joined them, but judging by the glimmer of hope she saw on Mike’s face, she quickly pieced together that Lucas and Max had arrived.

 

“Stay back,” she barked, her eyes flitting between the two captives she had in her (invisible) grasp.

 

She heard the steps stop behind her. Mike scrambled to find his balance again, adjusting his grip on the sword and beginning to make his way towards the zombie frozen in place.

 

“NO.”

 

He froze at her command.

 

Memories from years ago comes to mind. Dustin and Lucas teaching her about the laws of physics as they tried to figure out what all she could do with her powers. The memory of the slingshot, pulled back taut. The further back it was pulled the better the shot. Of that one summer when she first saw the Olympics, how the shot put was launched into the air with all of that power behind it.

 

She slowly took a step back, her Converse skidding on the cement floor. There was a definite shimmer to the air that connected her and the zombie and her left arm was screaming in pain. 

 

Shaking just slightly, she began to bend her left elbow, her eyes never leaving Brenner’s now terrified face. 

 

The party had discovered that she was able to pick up writing and doing things with both of her hands. A skill that Dustin had rambled was some type of long word that she could never remember. But while she may not have remembered the word for it now, she did remember what it meant. 

 

And so with that last thought, she shove her left hand forward and swung the zombie up towards Brenner.

 

The release of the concentration of the power in her left side carried across her body and she let it all go while she watched the zombie hurtle towards him. It hit where she had been hoping – cross-checking Brenner and sending him toppling over the side of the glass now that he had bene freed from El’s hold. The zombie continued directly into the back wall, dying on impact with a crunch against it.

 

Two birds with one stone.

 

Just before Brenner hit the floor though, a strangled yell coming from him as he approached his death, he stopped. Hovering just above it.

 

El was now simply staring at him.

 

She didn’t need her hands reached out in front of her for this. 

 

Brenner was simply a man.

 

She slowly began walking up to him, tilting her head up so that his body straightened up as she got closer. Sheer terror had now taken over his face, a slight sheen of sweat shining on his forehead as he watched her.

 

Mike would later tell her that as Brenner had risen, so had El. Her steps had slowly begun to make her climb into the air, simply walking through the air until she and Brenner were both hanging suspended above the ground. He would tell her how Max and Lucas had reached him safely and the three of them had stood, too stunned at the sight to intervene as the two figures floated above them.

 

El could feel the blood still pooling in the back of her throat from her nosebleed. Some dripped from her earlobes down to her chin as it followed the lines of her body. 

 

“What’s the cure?”

 

When he didn’t answer her, she felt her eyes narrow and he began to choke on the air leaving his body. 

 

He frantically began to jerk his head when he realized she wasn’t going to stop. Her eyes blinked and opened back to their normal size and he gulped in oxygen. His eyes drifted back up towards the offices that she had originally seen when she had walked in. 

 

“The computers?” She reiterated when he didn’t speak.

 

He nodded again.

 

“Some… won’t make it… but we are testing… a cure,” his voice was hoarse as he fought to claw the words out of his throat. “The data… is there.”

 

She nodded slowly.

 

“Let me… go… Eleven,” he whispered. The authoritative tone he so often used was gone, replaced by pleading. 

 

Memories of her childhood ran through her mind in a flash.

 

The tanks. 

 

The tests.

 

The men who had poked her and stared at her.

 

The cat that had hissed so angrily at her.

 

The freedom that had come from the moment the lab had been raided and a man with the name ‘Sheriff Hopper’ embroidered on his uniform picked her up to carry her out.

 

She shook her head, her anger gone though. Being so close to Brenner after all of these years, she saw how small he actually was. That this man had seemed giant after years of abuse, but after years of freedom she saw how small and desperate he was.

 

“No.”

 

His eyes were flooded with panic and he began to writhe in the air. El closed her eyes and imagined an ocean, washing everything away. She felt her shoulders relax, and the pounding headache that had been throbbing in the front of her skull slowly disappeared. Her body felt free, and with it her mind as well. She had been released.

 

And when she opened her eyes, Brenner’s were closed.

 

She reached a small tendril of power towards him. Inspecting. But there wasn’t a heartbeat to be found.

 

She released her hold on him and his body slumped forward until it was completely down.

 

And she dropped to the ground. 

 

Well, not quite _all of the way_ to the ground.

 

Mike used every ounce of athletic skill in his body to dive forward, feeling his jeans burn his knees as they scraped across the floor. It was worth it though, even as his elbow banged into the cement. He had managed to get under the top half of El, helping cushion her fall to the ground. Lucas and Max raced over as well, barely a beat behind him.

 

Her vision going in and out, El felt herself relaxing into Mike’s arms. A hand, maybe Max’s, brushed away sweaty curls from her forehead. She could hear Lucas testing the walkie talkie, the button being smashed in and burst of static while he yelled into it. 

 

“I repeat, we need help now! We’re in hallway down the metro line, you’ll find the opened up rubble that leads you too. We need medical attention! Over!”

 

Things were in focus now but El still felt her eyelids dropping in exhaustion. 

 

“Stay with me okay El?” Mike’s voice floated through to her, his watery smile trying to hide the fear in his voice as he cradled her head.

 

She nodded, a light smile tugging at her lips as her eyes stayed shut for longer periods at a time. Her hand reached up to his face, trembling slightly as she traced her fingers down his cheek.

 

“I’m not going anywhere,” she whispered, barely saying the words before passing out.

**Author's Note:**

> This ended up being a lot more to write than I was expecting but I’m really happy with how it came out! It’s interesting writing in the same world from such different perspectives in Lumax v. Mileven, but it’s honestly one of my favorite pieces right now between the two. I’ve also had the personal headcanon that El gets into meditation because I feel like it would be the perfect thing for her and also that it fits well with what I imagine would be a good way to help control her powers. Which meant it was perfect to slip into here! I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride so far!!


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